Archduke Leopold Wilhelm of Austria

Archduke Leopold Wilhelm of Austria (5 January 1614-20 November 1662) was Governor of the Spanish Netherlands from 1647 to 1656, succeeding Manuel de Moura Corte Real and preceding John of Austria the Younger.

Biography
Archduke Leopold Wilhelm was born in Wiener Neustadt, Austria in 1614, the youngest son of Emperor Ferdinand II of Germany and Maria Anna of Bavaria. His elder brother became Emperor Ferdinand III of Germany, and he served as a general of the Habsburg domains during the Thirty Years' War and the Franco-Spanish War. During the latter war, he was defeated by France at the Battle of Lens, but he seized several French forts in February-March 1652, forcing the French Army to retreat from Catalonia to fight the threat up north. Archuke Leopold Wilhelm was also granted several prince-bishoprics to guarantee him income, despite lacking canonical qualifications. In 1656, he returned to Vienna after the situation in the Spanish Netherlands had deteriorated, and he died there in 1662.